Chapter 96: Celestial Zhe Wood Silkworm

「Three days later.」

In a courtyard halfway up Celestial Gate Mountain, Fang Qingyuan was talking with a Female Cultivator who wore a slightly sorrowful expression.

Fang Qingyuan knew this Female Cultivator. Based on seniority, he had to address her as Senior Sister.

Although this Female Cultivator was not a disciple of the Southern Border Beast Taming Sect, her husband had been. Her late husband, to be exact.

Her husband had also been an Inner Sect Disciple. Unfortunately, a few months ago, he was in the first group dispatched by Lechuan to the front lines at Celestial Attraction Mountain. After several battles, he was killed in action, leaving behind his newlywed wife to remain alone in the Beast Taming Sect.

After the second war at Celestial Attraction Mountain ended, Lechuan held a grand funeral for the fallen disciples. The compensation was generous, and he treated the families of the deceased with great kindness, allowing them to continue living in the residences provided by the sect.

Through these measures, Lechuan won back some hearts and minds. Now, the sect was busy organizing a racing competition, and even a lazy disciple like Zhang Yuan had signed up to participate—a testament to Lechuan’s effectiveness.

Now, aside from their close friends and family, these fallen disciples were rarely mentioned by others.

The dead were gone, but the living had to go on. After handling her husband’s funeral arrangements, the Female Cultivator before Fang Qingyuan had begun to sell off his estate.

And one of the assets she was now selling was something Fang Qingyuan happened to need.

"Junior Brother Fang, I won’t hide it from you. This batch of Spiritual Silkworms left behind by your Senior Brother Yaozu is an extraordinary breed, and the silk cocoons they produce are of the highest quality. If I weren’t so terrible at raising Spirit Insects, I would never sell these Spiritual Silkworms, no matter what."

Hearing the Female Cultivator’s words, Fang Qingyuan nodded in agreement. The Spiritual Silkworms raised by the late Senior Brother Yaozu were indeed excellent; back in the day, they were something he could boast about among the other Inner Sect Disciples.

Senior Brother Yaozu had raised Tier One Middle Grade Celestial Zhe Wood Silkworms. The cocoons spun by these Spiritual Silkworms were green and could be reeled into a beautiful, soft silk. It retained its natural green color without needing to be dyed, and the finished product had a unique luster.

When woven into ritual robes, it made them vibrant and beautiful, making them highly sought after by many Female Cultivators.

Moreover, this silk contained Wood Spiritual Power. Daoist Robes and other ritual robes made from it could enhance a Cultivator’s perception of Wood Spiritual Power while meditating, making them worth a fortune.

But such excellent Spiritual Silkworms were also incredibly demanding to raise. Anyone not from the Beast Taming Sect typically wouldn’t even try, as they wouldn’t be able to keep them alive.

The Senior Sister before him was a case in point. She could clearly earn far more Spirit Stones by continuing to raise them, but she had to bear the pain of selling them instead.

After her husband’s death, she had tried raising them for two months, but the Spiritual Silkworms died in batches, one after another. They were on the verge of being wiped out entirely, which scared her so much that she didn’t dare continue. Her only choice was to sell them.

During that time, she found several potential buyers, but perhaps because her asking price was too high, none of them made an offer, and no deal was reached.

’I’m just here to see what she’s asking. If her price is still too high, I’ll just find another Spirit Beast. After all, Senior Brother Yaozu wasn’t the only one who died before Celestial Yin Mountain half a year ago.’

With this thought in mind, Fang Qingyuan was merciless when it came to haggling. ’Business is business. I already gave a gift for Senior Brother Yaozu’s funeral service.’

"What Senior Sister says is true; the quality of these Celestial Zhe Wood Silkworms is indeed high. But as far as I know, they are quite difficult to raise. Putting aside the specific mulberry leaves they need for food, the environment they require for growth is very demanding.

The temperature must be kept constant year-round. Whether it’s cloudy and rainy or scorching hot, you have to regulate it. If the environment changes even slightly, the Spiritual Silkworms will stop eating and drinking at best; in severe cases, they’ll just drop dead. I’d rather not buy them only to have them die in droves."

As soon as Fang Qingyuan finished pointing out these flaws, the Senior Sister’s expression soured. But everything he said was true, so she couldn’t refute his points.

Seeing the Senior Sister’s expression, Fang Qingyuan smiled inwardly. ’These conditions are extremely troublesome and costly for other Cultivators. They’d have to use Spirit Stones to set up an Array to maintain the proper environment. But inside my Immortal Mansion, the temperature and humidity are always constant, the same year-round.’

’Naturally occurring Spiritual Silkworms, of course, wouldn’t be this delicate. Otherwise, the species would have gone extinct in the wild long ago.’

The Celestial Zhe Wood Silkworms that Fang Qingyuan now wanted to buy were a mutated breed, painstakingly cultivated by the late Senior Brother Yaozu for nearly twenty years. In exchange for their resilience to environmental changes, their silk quality and output had been greatly enhanced.

Otherwise, this Senior Sister wouldn’t be treating them like a rare commodity and trying so hard to sell them at a high price.

After listing these drawbacks, Fang Qingyuan studied the Senior Sister’s expression and then continued:

"Furthermore, I’ve heard that the pair of male and female moths—the very ones Senior Brother Yaozu spent twenty years painstakingly cultivating to Tier One Middle Grade—are hardly laying any eggs now, thanks to your improper care. I imagine that’s something you wouldn’t want others to find out, correct?"

The moment Fang Qingyuan finished speaking, the Senior Sister’s face changed. She asked in a low voice:

"How did you know that?"

Fang Qingyuan gave a faint smile and didn’t answer. Instead, he started discussing the price.

Perhaps it was because Fang Qingyuan seemed sincere, or perhaps because his offer was the highest she’d received recently, but after some negotiation, they reached a deal. Fang Qingyuan bought the batch of Celestial Zhe Wood Silkworms, along with Senior Brother Yaozu’s twenty years of cultivation notes, for a final price of one thousand five hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones.

Half a day later, with a few of his sect brothers as witnesses, Fang Qingyuan paid the sum of Spirit Stones and signed the contract.

After Fang Qingyuan finished packing up everything related to the Celestial Zhe Wood Silkworms, he turned to the Senior Sister, who had been standing beside him the whole time, and said:

"Senior Sister, with Spirit Insects like these, if you push them too hard, they might lay a large number of eggs at first, but afterward they will produce fewer or even stop laying altogether. I’m sure you understand the principle."

Fang Qingyuan stopped there, saying no more. He didn’t need to spell it out; the Senior Sister understood. He was allowing her to save face.

In order to make the Celestial Zhe Wood Silkworms seem more productive and sell them for a good price, the Senior Sister had forced the pair of moths to lay a massive number of eggs, creating an illusion of false prosperity.

What she didn’t know was that there is a limit to the number of eggs a pair of Spiritual Silkworms can lay in a given time. The few disciples who came before had known something was amiss the moment they saw the numbers, but out of respect for her, they had said nothing and simply left.

After all, she was not a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect and was completely clueless about raising Spiritual Silkworms. There were many common-sense issues she would never realize unless someone pointed them out to her.

Of course, if she had understood these things, she wouldn’t have been selling the Spiritual Silkworms in the first place.

Having gently touched upon the subject, Fang Qingyuan took his newly acquired Spiritual Silkworms and casually returned to his own small courtyard.

He then eagerly placed all the Spiritual Silkworms inside his Immortal Mansion. As his spiritual consciousness entered, he saw that the once-desolate patch of Black Land he had recently opened up had now been dramatically transformed.